Last night, Copenhagen eaterie Noma won the title of World's Best Restaurant
for the fourth time. Xanthe Clay speaks exclusively to chef Rene
Redzepi

Last night, Rene Redzepi became the culinary Comeback Kid. But sitting in a side room at London’s Guildhall, with a glazed eyes and an expression of disbelief, he was more trance-like than triumphant. Yet barely 10 minutes before, in the cathedral-like main hall, Redzepi’s Copenhagen restaurant Noma had just regained the top position inthe World's Best Restaurant Awards, sponsored by San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna.

For Redzepi, the emotion was pure shock. “From the deepest part of my gut I can honestly say I did not expect this. No one in our restaurant expected this,” he admitted, sipping at a glass of water, having turned down champagne. Nor, it seemed, had anyone else – my neighbour at the awards muttered to me that last year’s Spanish winner Celler de Can Roca was a shoe-in for a repeat win, while I had speculated that it might be the turn of New York palace restaurant Eleven Madison Park. There was an audible intake of breath when the result was announced.

Mind you, Redzepi had been phlegmatic when, after three years at the top, he last year lost the crown. “The rules of these awards were written hundreds of years ago by Isaac Newton.” What goes up must come down? “Exactly. And as long as you keep remembering that, you won’t treat it like your fourth child.”

Losing last year was still a blow, coming as it did a couple of months after the restaurant was forced to close due to an outbreak of norovirus. “It was like we were cursed. We came from this young restaurant, everyone loved us, then suddenly it’s like … don’t put your foot there! The news in the Danish papers is all 'Noma is over'. Although the restaurant was still full, with a waiting list, they were shaken. “It was a year when we thought that’s it, we’ve had our moment.”

Despite his evident delight in capturing top place again, he admitted that while the award might bring fame, it doesn’t automatically confer fortune. Noma still barely breaks even. “Last year we made a three per cent profit,” Redzepi told me. It’s a labour intensive business - the forty-five seat restaurant employs 68 staff, including four of the original eight that the restaurant opened with back in 2003, and Redzepi doesn’t believe in paying peanuts. “People who have been there 11 years, you’re not going to pay them [a low wage]. They have families.” Plus, as he pointed out, “it’s Denmark – there is 25 per cent VAT on everything.”

They could raise prices and still have a full restaurant – and with a tasting menu costing already around £300, that’s testament to diners' enthusiasm – but he doesn’t want to do that. In June, bookings open for a Japanese residency next year, which he hints is “a big part of a very, very interesting three to five-year plan.”

As for over the awards, is it a bit boring, Noma heading the list again? “There’s probably several people saying that. You know what… it doesn’t even matter. I know that for the team right now, this is the biggest moment,” he told me. The Japanese adventure will spice things up, anyway. “I steamed my first tofu ever one week ago,” Redzepi confided – and if anyone could make tofu exciting, he’d be the one.